Friday 21 April 2017

Milk Stout 1925 - 1937

I should temporarily change title of the blog to The Milk Stout Story". Don't worry. I'm nowhere near finished with the topic.

I've dove into my collection of Gravity Book analyses to spear all the Milk Stout examples. And there are quite a few. All I can say is: what a diverse bunch.

For a start, the gravities are all over the shop. As you can see, the original, Mackeson, had a very respectable OG of 1060º in 1929. To put that into perspective, Guinness Extra Stout was around 1055º between the wars. The examples in the table vary from 1036º to 1066º. Though admittedly the high one is a Belgian example from Lamot. Though, at 1064º the strongest UK-brewed dexample isn't that far behind. The overall average of 1053º is probably about the same as the average for all Stouts.

Some of the rates of attenuation surprised me by how high they were. I wouldn't expect a Milk Stout, with all that unfermentable lactose to get higher than 65% apparent attenuation. Yet there are a few pushing 80%. Not sure how they achieved that, unless the quantity of lactose used was quite small. At the other end, there are a few at 50% attenuation of less. Which is more like you would expect. The overall average of 64% is higher than I would have guessed.
Note that the price per pint didn't always necessarily reflect the strength of the beer. At a time when beer strengths weren't gerneally known, it was relatively easy for a brewer to overprice a beer.

What I see is typical of fairly new styles. initially, different brewers interpretations vary considerably in strength and character, but eventually settle into a similar pattern. We'll see if that's true as I slowly creep through the decades.


Milk Stout 1925 - 1937
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint d OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation
1925 Simonds Milk Stout 11 1062.1
1927 Ashton Gate Brewery Milk Stout 9 1052.4 1015.7 4.76 70.04%
1928 Simonds Milk Stout 10 1058.7 1017.5 5.35 70.19%
1929 Mackeson Milk Stout 10 1060.4 1020.4 5.18 66.23%
1930 Beer & Rigden Milk Stout 1054.4 1027.1 3.50 50.18%
1931 Calder Milk Stout 1059 1023 4.65 61.02%
1931 Fremlin Milk Stout 10 1047.5 1019.9 3.56 58.11%
1932 Carter, Milner & Bird Milk Stout 11 1044.2 1013.4 3.99 69.68%
1933 Murray Milk Stout 1036 1018 2.31 50.00%
1933 Simonds Milk Stout 10 1049 1018.5 3.94 62.24%
1934 Fremlin Milk Stout 8 1048.7 1020.4 3.65 58.11%
1934 Woodhead Milk Stout 8 1041.6 1016.3 3.26 60.82%
1935 Allsopp Milk Stout 9 1049.3 1013.8 4.61 72.01%
1935 Ansell Milk Stout 11 1060.7 1018.1 5.53 70.18%
1935 Fremlin Milk Stout 8 1048.8 1020.2 3.69 58.61%
1935 Lamot Milk Stout 1065.7 1016.9 6.35 74.28%
1935 Mann Milk Stout 10 1044.6 1022.9 2.79 48.65%
1935 Simonds Milk Stout 10 1048.4 1014.3 4.42 70.45%
1935 Simonds Milk Stout 10 1055 1018.3 4.75 66.73%
1936 McEwan Milk Stout 12 1064.4 1013.1 6.70 79.66%
1936 Wm. Younger Milk Stout 10.5 1063 1014.7 6.30 76.67%
1937 Allsopp Milk Stout 12 1050.3 1014.5 4.64 71.17%
1937 Ansell Milk Stout 12 1060.8 1018.1 5.54 70.23%
1937 Calder Alloa Milk Stout 1055.75 1022.25 4.32 60.09%
1937 Mackeson Milk Stout 1057 1024.5 4.19 57.02%
1937 Mann Milk Stout 9 1043.8 1023.8 2.56 45.66%
1937 Marston Milk Stout 9 1045.8 1010 4.66 78.17%
1937 Murray Milk Stout 6 1044.8 1019.2 3.30 57.14%
1937 Seed, Richard Milk Stout 11 1052.9 1011.3 5.42 78.64%
1937 Wenlock Milk Stout 8 1053.5 1025.9 3.55 51.59%
Average 9.8 1052.6 1018.3 4.39 64.26%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.


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